Pounding was not the word to describe how my head felt. It was as if a parade was going on filled with nothing but drums. I winced with each thud, wishing the pain would stop. Groaning, I felt my eyes flutter open and a bright light hit them. It made the pain increase, causing me to close my eyes again. Blinking a few times, my eyes adjusted to the brightness. Glancing down, I saw I was laying in one of the units in the medical bay at the Command Center. Tubes and wires were connected to me in both my arms. Confused, I sat up. Pressure built in my head, causing me to swear under my breath. "What the hell." I whispered, rubbing my temples. I felt like I had gone out drinking for a week straight, choosing tequila over oxygen.
"You're awake!" The chipper voice of Billy said from my left. I glanced over at him, seeing he was doing something on the computer near my bed.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Let me inform the others and we will go over everything." He replied, bringing his communicator to his mouth. "Guys, Kimberly is conscious." Billy's arm wasn't even down to his side before the medical bay door slid open, Tommy rushing in. His face was full of concern and his arm was bandaged up from his wrist to the elbow. The green knitted long sleeve shirt he wore was pushed up over the bandage and he wore he traditional khakis. He jogged over to the side of the bed, glancing at the monitor next to me before grabbing my hand.
"Hey, beautiful. It's nice to see those eyes open again." He said as the others walked into the bay. Trini and Jason were holding hands, each smiling when they saw me. Zack smiled as well, giving me a little wave.
"Ugh. What happened?" I questioned, glancing at him. "Last thing I remember was flying over the hotel."
"The pterodactyl was hit with some kind of harpoon that disabled your engines. You went down in the ocean. If it wasn't for Tommy, you would have died." Trini explained, reaching out and taking my other hand. "You gave us quite the scare, girl."
"That's right!" I said, the fuzzy memories coming back to me. I remembered the red dot on the zord now. "What was it?"
"It was a tracking device." Billy said, walking towards the rest of us. "They were trying to find our location I believe. I disabled it when we pulled the zord from the water."
"Rosita knows we are on to her then." I replied, frowning. The group nodded, glancing at one another. "So what's our next move?"
"We draw her out and attack her and her forces far enough away from the city." Jason said, crossing his arms in front of him. "We don't know what kind of power she has behind her and we don't want to chance that taking out Angel Grove."
"Should we make communications with the mayor?" Billy asked. "We could have them start evacuating civilians now." Tommy shook his head.
"If we do that, we may tip her off with all the people staying at the hotel. If anything, we can place the city on alert. They haven't seen a monster attack in almost twenty years. I'm sure they still have some type of protocols in place for this type of situation." He sighed, running a hand through his short hair. "We need to find a replacement for Kim before we make any real plans."
"What?" I asked, looking at him confused. "I'm fine! I didn't take any type of damage from before, right Billy?" Billy shook his head. He went to speak but Tommy cut him off.
"It's too dangerous with your back injury for you to be fighting like this. One wrong hit or move and you could be paralyzed for the rest of your life. We can find someone else who can take over."
"No!" I exclaimed, hopping off the table. I yanked the IV and the rest of the wires off of me, ignoring the pinch of pain as I did. "This is my duty as a Power Ranger! I'm not just going to stand down because of what might happen. Any of you could get hurt! Why am I so special that I can't fight?"
"You are already risking so much as it is. You almost died last night, Kim! There is no way I'm going to let you-." He said but I interjected.
"Let me? You are not my protector, Tommy Oliver. I am my own person to do as I wish, and you are not going to stop me from doing this. I took the dino gem and I am responsible for it now. If this gets me stuck in a wheel chair the rest of my life, so be it. I'm not going to let you or anyone else stop me from finishing this. Do you expect me to just sit here and watch all of my friends risk their lives while I'm safe here? That isn't going to happen." I said, poking him in the chest. He huffed, glaring at me.
"As the leader of this team-."
"Bullshit! Don't pull that leader crap with me. I'm going to fight whether you like it or not." I turned and looked at the rest of the team. "Does anyone else object?"
"Kim, I really do think you should be more careful." Trini said softly. "You're a great fighter but you need to make sure you are going to be able to help us for the long haul." I gave her a small smile, taking her hand.
"I will be more careful. I promise." A siren began to wail around the room, a flashing red light filling the area with a red glow.
"Shit. What now?" Jason groaned as we all headed towards the center of the Command Center. I shot Tommy a glare as I passed him, running next to Trini. I felt a bit winded from running, the after effects of almost drowning still wearing off apparently. Alpha was standing next to the viewing globe, attempting to make the picture more clear. Zordon was in his usual spot in his crystal tube, peering down at Alpha with concern.
"What is it, Alpha?" Zack asked.
"Rangers! A monster is attacking the Angel Grove hospital!" Alpha replied, waving his arms around. "He's terrorizing the staff and the patients."
"Great." Tommy muttered, glancing at the globe. On the screen, there was a humanoid shaped reptile running through the halls of the hospital. It had green and orange scaled skin and piercing white eyes that darted around as he ran after people. "We can take care of him quickly. Jason, you, Zack and I will handle this creep. Trini and Billy, say here and keep working on the pterodactyl zord. We need it to be functioning as soon as possible." His eyes landed on me. "Stay here and heal." He said gruffly, pulling out his morpher.
"It's morphin' time!" Jason called. Him, Zack and Tommy morphed into their respected colored uniform before teleporting out of the Command Center. I glared at the spot where Tommy was just standing while Billy and Trini watched me cautiously.
"Kim? Did something happen between Tommy and you while you were finding the dino gems?" Trini asked, stepping towards me. I tossed her a look, trying to communicate with her without speaking. She nodded, folding her arms in front of herself. "He only wants what's best for you. Seeing you almost die did a lot to him. We thought for sure you were gone when he pulled you out of the Zord. Try not to be too upset with him, okay?" She said, gently touching my shoulder.
"I'll try." I replied, sighing. Turning, her and Billy walked out of the room and towards the hangar where the Zords were kept. I stepped closer to the viewing globe, watching as Jason, Tommy and Zack appeared on the screen.
"Kimberly, are you alright?" Alpha asked, reminding me he was still in the room. I gave him a small smile, nodding.
"I'm okay, Alpha. You don't need to worry about me."
"The Rangers were very worried about you. Especially Tommy." He replied. "I am glad to see you are alright. I'm going to see if Trini and Billy need my assistance." His feet made small thuds as he walked after the blue and yellow rangers. Looking back at the globe, I noticed that the three rangers were now battling the reptile monster outside in the parking lot. Tommy and Jason fought well together, maneuvering at the same speed and hitting with quality impacts that seemed to hurt the ugly beast each time they made contact. Zack came up behind them, added insult to injury with quick kicks.
"It's good to see that the Rangers are still such trained warriors." Zordon said, watching the globe with me.
"Those three eat, breath and sleep training." I said, not looking at him. Tommy jumped onto the hood of a car and hit the thing from behind, sending him flying on to his stomach. The three clearly had the thing on the ropes, ready to defeat it. Jason swung his leg to land a sharp kick to the monster's face, but it caught him with its claws. With a quick jerking motion, the monster snapped Jason's leg. I couldn't hear anything, but I could tell he was in agony by the way he thrashed on the ground. "Zordon!" I called, turning to face him. "Jason's hurt!"
"I will contact the others to assist them." He responded. On the globe, Zack grabbed Jason by the arms and dragged him backwards while Tommy pulled his Dragon Dagger from his belt. He jumped, landing the short sword into the sternum of the beast. In a wave of bright lights and dust, the monster disintegrated in front of them as Trini and Billy came running into the control center.
"What happened?" Trini asked, running over to the globe next to me.
"They killed the monster, but I think it broke Jason's leg." I replied. "They are teleporting back now. We should meet them in the medical bay." Nodding, Trini took off running towards the room we had just left moments ago. Billy and I followed behind her, running into Alpha in the hallway. I heard him running behind us as the sound of painful moans came from the medical bay. Turning the corner, I saw Jason laying on the bed I had been laying in. His helmet was off and he was clutching his right leg. It was at an odd angle, telling us all that it was broken. Trini gasped when she saw him, darting for his side. Tommy and Zack were behind his bed, doing their best to slid him onto the bed properly.
"Billy! We need some help here." Zack said, seeing us in the door way.
"He's leg won't heal right if it's in that direction." Trini said, grabbing Jason's hand. "You'll need to set it before the machine can heal him properly."
"Right." Billy ran over to the right wall that contained a number of white drawers. He pulled one open, pulling out bandages and other medical supplies. He made his way over to Jason, tossing the stuff on the table next to the bed. "Hold him down." He said, ripping a piece of tape with his teeth. Zack and Tommy did as they were told, grabbing onto Jason. Tommy stood at the head of the bed, holding Jason's torso down. Zack took the lower half, holding his functioning leg and hips. "Kim, I need you to help me move his leg back to where it needs to be."
"Okay." I replied, nausea hitting me. I crossed the room and stood by Billy. Trini reached over and unmorphed Jason, returning him to his street clothes. She then reached up and grabbed his cheek, turning his face towards her.
"Just look at me, okay? Think of little JC and our little family." She said, smiling at him. He nodded, doing his best to focus on her. His face was a pale green color and he looked like he was going to faint any second.
"On the count of three, I'm going to jerk his leg back." Billy whisper, glancing at me. "When I do that, you have to take his leg and hold it still so I can wrap it." I nodded. He took a deep breath, nodding at the other guys. They all nodded as well, trying not to give Jason any idea what was coming. "One, two, three!" Billy grabbed Jason's leg by the ankle and moved it towards the other one. Jason let out a short scream before passing out. I took his leg from Billy, holding it steady. It flopped with each move, telling me the bone was completely severed. I closed my eyes, trying not to look at it. I felt Billy wrap the leg while it was straight. I looked when he sighed. Everyone stood up straight, looking more relaxed now that it was set.
"We should get him over to the repair chamber before he wakes up." Zack said. Billy nodded, reaching under the bed. He hit a button and the top of the bed detached from the bottom, allowing Zack and Billy to carry Jason towards the chambers on the left side of the room. They resembled MRI machines; a long incase tube with openings along the side of it to see inside. These chambers use the power of the morphing grid to heal the person inside of them. I suppose I spent a fair share of time in one last night after I sank into the ocean. The boys slid Jason into the first one as I wrapped an arm around Trini.
"He'll be fine, Trini. Just a few hours in there and he'll be up kicking ass." I said, smiling. She shook her head.
"I can't keep doing this. I thought it was bad when we were kids and we were always getting hurt. This is worse! He could have been killed today. What would the kids and I do without Jason there?" She asked, tears brimming her eyes.
"Kids?" I questioned. She nodded, moving her hand to her stomach.
"We wanted to tell everyone at the reunion but then all of this happened. I'm about two months along." She whispered. I casted a glance at Tommy who returned it.
"Trini, that's fantastic!" I said, hugging her. She let out a small laugh, returning the hug.
"Congrats." Tommy said, hugging her as well. "You should have said something before this. We don't know what kind of effects the dino gem could have had on the baby."
"Billy kept an eye on it before and after I synced with the dino gem. The baby seems fine. Jason didn't want me to join either but I didn't want him to fight without me." She replied.
"Once he's up and moving, we'll meet and talk about it." Tommy said. "We'll figure this out."